February 22, 2012
Debts
Romans 13:1-14
- We Owe To the Government Romans 13:1-7
- We Owe To Each Other Romans 13:8-14
(Steve Brown, a Christian author, related the story of a soldier in WWI who was so distraught with war, that he deserted. He tried to find his way to the coast, so that he could catch a boat and make his way back incognito to his homeland in England.
In the darkness of the night, he stumbled on a road sign. It was so pitch black, and he was so lost, that he had no idea where he was or what the sign said. He decided to climb the pole to see if getting closer would enable him to read the sign. When he got to the crossbeam, he held on with one hand and lit a match with the other one-------------he was shocked------he was looking straight into the face of Jesus. He had climbed up, onto an outdoor crucifix!
Stunned by what he saw, he realized that he needed to be ashamed of his attitude and the way he’d been behaving. He was looking into the face of the One person, that he knew had endured it all, for the sake of people that He didn’t know, either. The next morning that young soldier was back in the trenches.)
This lesson is about our appreciating and honoring those authorities which God has set over us, for our good and for our protection. God’s hand and His plan have
placed them, or allowed them, to be where they are, for a purpose. Not obeying, an honoring them, is disrespectful to the authorities, but it is even more disrespectful, to God. It shows a lack of love for Him and a total disregard for how we’re supposed to care for each other. The Lord could come back, at any moment, so in light of that; we need to live honorably, in our communities, and lovingly with our neighbors, so that the Gospel will be spread, so that everyone will have an opportunity to hear it.
I Debts That We Owe the Government Romans 13:1-7
I think Americans and much of the world believes, that the best form of government is a democracy. We think, that it is the one that God would choose, for every nation and country to have. And, before this lesson, I would have personally agreed with that thinking, because it seems to be the one, as imperfect as it is, to be the most conducive, to fairness and equality, for all of its citizens. Even Winston Churchill, who arguably, did more to defend democracy than any other political figure ever has, quoted this, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
But, the truth is, there is no support for this view, anywhere in scripture. In fact, if you search the scripture, for what the ideal form of government is-----a monarchy, a dictatorship, a republic, a democracy, communism or a theocracy----the answer would be, “the best government for you, is the government you live under,” because that is where you have been placed in history, to live out your life-------and that’s the authority that you have to yield yourself to------“you have to render unto Caesar, what is Caesar’s and you have to render unto God, what is God’s.
In every place in the world, in every time in history, God has raised up or allowed different forms of government, according to the nature of a given population, and according to the degree of truth and light that a population has received and according to the moral conditions that prevail in the given society. There has never been, in the history of mankind, one form of government, which has continued indefinitely. The only government, that we can know for certain, that God has ordained, to last forever, is the millennial one, where Jesus will be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and He will reign, unchallenged for all eternity.
It is true though; that wherever people grow toward an understanding of the truth of the gospel and wherever there are strong moral principles----democracy often takes root and wherever on the other hand, when truth disappears, the government often becomes autocratic and totalitarian------like Big Brother is watching every move.
Paul tells us, that it doesn’t matter, which form of government that we live under---God is still behind it, because He invented government, to prevent mankind from running wild, doing anything that comes into their heads. He is in control of all things; there is no government, which can overturn God’s plan, for human history. God’s purposes will be accomplished, even in the most godless and repressive regimes imaginable. In Daniel 2:20-21---Daniel tells King Nebuchadnezzar, a great autocratic king of the ancient world, “Praise be to the name of God, forever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons. He sets up kings and He takes them down.” Daniel wanted the king to understand, that God, is not just some remote figure, who lives out in space somewhere------------He is actively involved in our lives and in the pattern of our government. And God never changes-----Hi s methods never change---what was the right thing for Daniel was the right thing for Paul -----and it is still the right thing all these 2000 years later.
When Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome, they were living in the capitol city of one of the most oppressive regimes, in human history. Nero was in the middle of his reign, as emperor of Rome but, the people already knew ‘just how crazy’, He was. Knowing about Nero and the oppression of Roman rule, makes Paul’s words, even more powerful, as He reminds those Christians, who were living under persecution-----that their government had been ordained by God, and they were to be obedient, to it.
When Paul refers to ‘governing authorities,” he is using a phrase that means, “the powers that be” He isn’t just talking about the king or military commander or heads of state----he’s talking about all levels of authority----from the grand emperor to the local dog-catcher. So for the Romans and for us, when we obediently submit ourselves to the governing authorities, we are actually submitting ourselves to God, Himself. This doesn’t mean that everything a government does is good and righteous, like God is----it just means that the government, and its rules and edicts, have been put into place for a reason, and we shouldn’t be subversive, unless the government acts in a way that it is contrary to God’ law----and then, we have a right and a duty and a debt, to stand up and to speak up so as to try to influence our government, in the best way that we can, in a positive way.
Earthly authorities are agents of law and order-----after God created the world, he filled it, organized it, and gave purpose to every created thing. When governments establish laws and carry out justice, they are honoring God’ created order, even when they don’t do it perfectly, or when they do it, for their own selfish motives. Disorder, chaos and lawlessness, is bad for everybody. That’s why governments, serve the purposes of God, whether they intentionally, mean to or not. They form and thrive with His permission, and they cease to exist, when they don’t serve His plan any longer.
When Jesus said, “Give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and give to God, the things that belong to God…” (Matt. 22:21) He was implying that there are limits to the power of government. The image of Caesar was stamped on a coin that Jesus held in His hand; so He was saying, that the things that bore Caesar’s image belonged to Caesar------but at the same time, some things were off-limits, even to Caesar. Governments have authority over what we do with our property and how we behave toward one another, but governments have no right to touch what God has stamped His image on----- the spirit, of every single human being, ever created.
Caesar has no right to control people’s worship or to control their obedience to God’s words. Rulers are under God, and their governments, should not oppress or enslave human beings, because humanity belongs to God. Romans 13, doesn’t deal with these issues, at length, but when you take scripture as a whole, which is what you have to do, you can’t take it out of context------it makes it clear that believers do have a right to resist oppression and religious persecution. But believers do not have the right to resist, the legitimate functions of the government.
When we put ourselves at odds with our government, we are, generally speaking, opposing God’s justice system. So, we should try, to the best of our ability, to live at peace, with everybody, if it’s at all, in our power. Unless we are living under madmen, like Adolph Hitler or Sadaam Hussein or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-----most governments, even oppressive ones, want their citizens, to live peacefully, productively and without troublemakers. If we obey the laws, pay our taxes, stop at red lights, don’t murder anybody, don’t speed, don’t take advantage of our neighbor’s property, don’t invade their privacy and don’t rob any banks, then we don’t have to live in fear of our government. But on the other hand, people who do break the law should be afraid of the government. This is on one of the most important reasons why God ordained government: to make evil-doers afraid to do evil.
That’s why government authority figures like policemen and judges and elected officials and prosecutors are called, “God’s Servants”, by Paul------ The word, servant, in this verse, comes from the Greek word, deacon. These authorities perform the work of God, Paul says, in and among humanity .This passage tells us that there are 2 basic functions that government authorities perform, 1.)They restrain evil and protect the population and 2.) They are servants of God. Governmental authorities punish crimes; they commend good deeds; they judge disputes; they maintain a well-ordered society, and they do it on God’s behalf, even if they don’t realize that’s what they’re doing.
Sometimes they even dispense compassion-----(During the Great Depression, Hew York City’s mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, presided over a Manhattan police court. A man was brought before him, who was thin, trembling, and shabbily dressed. He was charged with stealing a loaf of bread. The man pled guilty to the crime, but explained that His family was starving and he was unable to find work.
“I’m sorry” said the mayor, “but the law makes no exceptions.” I’m going to have to fine you 10 dollars.”
“But I haven’t got 10 dollars!” the defendant said, “I don’t even have a dime!”
“I understand,” said Mayor LaGuardia, reaching into his own pocket. “That’s why I’m going to pay the fine myself. Here take this.” He handed the money to the man, “Furthermore, I’m going to remit the fine----that means you get to keep the money.”
The defendant stared at the ten dollar bill in his hands; it had been a long time since he had handled that much money.
“One more thing”, the mayor added, “Bailiff, take off your hat and pass it around the courtroom. I’m fining everybody in the courtroom 50 cents, for living in a city, where a man has to steal, in order to get bread for his family.” The money was collected and given to the defendant.)
The government provides for our defense and for our security and for the services that we need, for our society, to function in a healthy way: Our military, our educators, our relief agencies, our firemen, our policeman, our postal service, our road and transportation depts., and our state and federal governments. To make these services possible----government has been given 2 powers----the premise of which is laid out in the scripture------1.) the power of force and 2.) the power to collect taxes. Paul says that the government servant “doesn’t bear the sword for nothing.” (Romans 13:4) The sword symbolized the right to use force, even the right to take life, in extreme cases-----like, in policing situations, in times of war, when our national self-defense is threatened and for capital punishment by the criminal justice system. (We have to respect the views of believers who conscientiously oppose capital punishment, but this passage makes it clear, that scripture, affirms the right of government, to impose the death penalty.)
And as for taxes, we may not like the level of taxation, imposed on us, but the principle of taxation is necessary, so that we can pay the salaries of the people who provide protection and community services for us. Paul makes it clear that Christians should pay their taxes and should pay them with a good attitude, because they are a contribution for the common good, of the whole society.
The motivation for Believers to obey the laws of the land, and to obey them well, should not just be, so that they can avoid being caught and punished. Our true motivation for obedience should be our Christian conscience, which is prompted by the Holy Spirit. Even during the Israelites exile, Jeremiah said in 29:7, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare, you will have welfare.”
We should obey the speed laws, whether there is an unmarked car nearby or not; we should pay the taxes we owe and shouldn’t fudge our tax return, even if we never get caught; (we have no right to withhold taxes just because we don’t agree with how they’re spent. We are accountable to pay what we owe----people in government are accountable for how the money is used. Governments are made up of fallible men and women, just like us, and there will be mistakes, waste, and fraud. But that doesn’t relieve us, of the responsibility to pay our taxes) ; we should pray for our elected officials, even if we don’t agree with their politics-----and we should keep our personal conversation about them positive, as best we can, even if we would like to scream our frustration with them from the rooftops for everybody to hear. Many people around us gripe and complain, but we need to be different. We need to be people of integrity, who obey the government, because we want to obey God, out of love and respect, not out of fear or punishment.
We serve a God who is neither Democrat nor Republican, who is neither communist nr capitalist. He transcends all political labels and ideologies. Not only are governments ordained by God, but the people in office are placed there by God. They are God’s servants, whether they know it or not. And whether they are wicked men or whether know and love God, they are used by Him to unwittingly, serve, to further His eternal plan, in history. It’s strange to realize that government officials who hate God and blaspheme His name, and persecute His people are actually His servants, but that’s exactly who they are: God’s strange servants.
Regardless of the government we live under, the hand of God is in it. So, we need to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to humbly submit ourselves to the governing authorities, because that is what Almighty God has told us to do.
- Debts We Owe to Each Other: Romans 13:8-14
When I owe somebody money, it bothers me, because I’m afraid that if I don’t pay it right away, I will forget to pay it at all. That’s how Paul wants us to think about Christian love. He wants us to remember that we have an obligation to love every single person that we meet.
Love is the greatest need in the world today. When Paul wrote this letter to the believers in Rome, love was surely the thing that was most lacking in their society. The Christians suffered cruel persecution under the emperor Nero and they desperately needed to know how to give and receive authentic love, as they struggled with the pressures and terrors of that regime.
The secret of authentic Christian love is to love the Lord our God, with all our hearts, our souls and our minds and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Paul says that it wouldn’t be hard to keep the 10 commandments if we would just follow this one simple command to love God first, and then to love each other----because all 10 can be summed up in this one commandment.
If we genuinely love God and love others, we would never cause anybody any harm. Think how the world would be changed, if everybody obeyed this one simple command. If we loved each other with authentic Christian love, we would never harm our family or another family, because of adultery. There would be no abuse or hatred or murder. There would be no lies or theft or gossip. We wouldn’t covet the material possessions or envy the success that we see other people achieving, because we would be genuinely happy for their joy.
If everybody followed this one simple commandment, there wouldn’t be any more divorces, because divorce is nothing more than two people forgetting how to love each other.(My goddaughter told me just last week that she had a friend in her kindergarten class whose mommy and daddy don’t like each other anymore so her friend is moving----------it made me so sad, I just couldn’t help thinking that 6 is way too young to know, that somebody doesn’t like someone else! If couples just chose to love each other more with a Christ like love, children would grow up happy and confident and secure, in homes, which are bound together by genuine love.
If everybody would practice this one simple commandment, there would never be another war. The nations of the world could disarm without fear. The thousands of nuclear weapons that countries are amassing could be dismantled. If everybody loved like this, there would be no more crime----our streets and parks would be safe to walk in at night. Our tax burden would lighten considerably, because the government wouldn’t need to spend money, on prisons, police and courtrooms. The ability to love is the radical force that Jesus Christ has turned loose on the world by His death and resurrection.
By urging us to love each other----Paul tells us that the ability to love has to be given an opportunity to be shared, and it has to begin with us. If we are in Christ, we have the power to love. We don’t have to ask for the power to love----we have the power to love, living right in our hearts. In our sinful natures, we may be tempted to hate, but in our spirits, we have the same power to love that Jesus had. How right would the world be, if we loved everybody around us, with a love that said, “I owe this person a debt of love, Lord, help me to repay that debt. How can I show your love to this person right now?”
Paul instills a sense of urgency in his words about love saying that if we truly understood the times that we’re living in, then we would be compelled, motivated and driven, to love each other.
There are 3 important features about the times we’re living in, and they have applied to every generation, since Paul first wrote them:
First: It’s time to spring into action. It’s time to wake up and see all the opportunities there are for us to truly love each other. People misunderstand what real love is all about----they can’t fathom how we can love somebody who is mistreating us. That’s because we are conditioned by our culture to think of love as a feeling, but Christ like love isn’t a feeling, it’s a decision. We choose to love people and the decision to love, is especially important at times, when we don’t feel like loving.
The ancient Greeks had 2 different words that they used for the feeling-based word, love----phileo----the feeling of affection that we have for a friend; eros----the romantic feeling that people feel, when they are attracted to each other; but there was another word that they reserved for the highest form of love, a love that isn’t a feeling at all, but is a conscious decision ---the word agape-----------and it is the kind of love that we should have for each other. The reason why this love is so powerful is because it isn’t based on emotion, it is an act of our wills, which is based on obedience to the Lord. When a person is unlovely and unlovable, we can pray for the strength and ability to do something good for that person, even though we don’t feel good toward them----that is expressing our love for them----that is behaving our way into a feeling, not feeling our way into a behavior.
(Martin Niemoller was a leading pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Germany, during WWII. He was a leading opponent of Hitler’s militarism an hatred of the Jews. He courageously opposed the Nazis until his arrest by the Gestapo in 1937. For 8 years he was imprisoned in concentration camps. As the war was ending, the Nazis slaughtered thousands of inmates in the camps, trying to leave no evidence of the atrocities they had perpetuated. Niemoller was one of the few who escaped execution. He died in 1984, at the age of 92. Shortly before his death, he told some friends of a disturbing, recurring dream that he had. In this dream, it was the day of god’s judgment of humanity and Niemoller saw Adolf Hitler standing before the Lord Jesus. Jesus came down from his throne, put His arm around and said, “Adolf, why? Why were you so cruel? Why did you do so much evil against your fellow man?” In the dream, Hitler hung his head and said, “Because no one ever told me how much you love me.”
Niemoller said, at that point in the dream, he would always awaken, in a cold sweat, shaking with guilt and grief. Why did he feel guilty? Because he remembered in the years before the war began, he had numerous meetings with Adolf Hitler. In his role as a leader of the Lutheran Church, Niemoller had sat across a table from Hitler numerous times, and had spoken with him face to face-----and in all of those times, he had never once said, “Jesus loves you Herr Hitler, He loves you so much that he came and died for you.” Martin Niemoller couldn’t help wondering how the world might have been changed, how history might have been rewritten, if he had dared to express openly, and obediently the agape love of Jesus to a man named Adolf Hitler.)
The second important feature that Paul impresses upon his readers about the times that we live in: is that time is short. The coming back of the Lord Jesus is drawing closer and closer. In John 9:4 Jesus told His disciples, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.” Jesus was aware of the brevity of His own earthly life and the urgency of Hiss mission upon this earth. He was telling them, that while He was present on the earth, it was daytime. But His death and burial would bring nightfall. We live in that period of darkness today. Philippians 2:15 tells us “that Christians are like bright stars shining in the darkness of the night sky.” The night of this world is all around us, right now, but the day is fast approaching. We don’t know how much time is left before the Lord will be coming back. He may come back tomorrow or next week or next year or a thousand years from now. What seems like a long span of years to us is just a mere blink of an eye from God’s point of view. The important thing for us to remember is that life is brief, time is short, the Lord Jesus is coming, and we have a limited time, in which, we can love each other. If we are going to pay off, the debt, of love, that we owe to one another, because of the great love that Jesus has paid to us, then we have to begin right now----because the night is almost over and the day is about to dawn.
And the 3rd feature about the times that we live in is: that it is time to give up sin and put on God’s armor of righteousness. It’s time to shed the deeds of darkness that we are so attracted to , that are incompatible with love-----orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, debauchery, dissention, and jealousy. That’s the only way that we can truly love people the way we’re supposed to.
Believers are not supposed to live for meaningless pleasure or self-indulgence or entertainment that just wastes our lives away. Every human being gets a finite number of heartbeats, and when they are used up, life is over. The time we have on earth is precious and irreplaceable, and we should spend our time here showing love to other people, not gratifying ourselves.
Paul deals pretty candidly with how we are supposed to view sex. Our natural human sex drive is powerful force that is highly exploited in the world we live in. God created us to be sexual creatures and intended that we should enjoy sex to the fullest, within the bounds of marriage, between a committed man and a woman. The world around us tries to cheapen sex and make it just another self-gratifying way to indulge ourselves.
We can’t love with a Christ like love, if sex and pleasure are out of proportion in our lives. Even though the act of sex is called “making love”----- in any situation, but within marriage, it isn’t authentic love at all. It’s about using people, not loving them. Paul gives a list of the ways that sexual loving is exploited----fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography. These things can’t be indulged in, without losing the ability to love people the way we’re supposed to with the love like Jesus loved. Sex is a wonderful god-given gift and Paul warns us about allowing it to be cheapened, with perverted behavior.
Strife, dissention and jealousy have no place in a believer’s life. Paul says that we need to measure ourselves against the behavior of Jesus----What is our effect on people? Do we get along and harmonize with people? Do we gather people together? Do we create peace and joy whomever we’re with? Or, do we generate strife, division or separation? Do we scatter people? Do we create upheaval and misery? We need to examine ourselves and our behavior and ask the Lord to help us make some major adjustments if we do any of these negative behaviors.
And last, but not least, Paul says that when we get up every morning, we need to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus, spiritually, just as surely, as we clothe ourselves physically. We have to make sure that He is can be seen in everything we do, that it is evident that he is demonstrating His love through us. Ray Stedman says that, “Paul had a purpose for using Jesus’ full title, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he says, for us to clothe ourselves with Him----because each name has a special meaning and attribute of Jesus----The Lord, stands for His authority---His power to rule over the event of history; Jesus, literally means, the Lord, our Savior---this name speaks of God’s amazing love, in sending Jesus, to die, to save us, when we were still sinners ----and Christ means that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who was anointed and commissioned by God the father, to deliver His people and set them free. So Paul is telling us that when we clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the authority of the Lord to carry on His ministry of loving others and continuing His messianic mission, of delivering people, and setting them free as we take the gospel to them.”
Jesus gives us His power to love everyone, even our enemies. If we would choose to exercise that power, in all the situations of our lives, with all the people that we meet, we would unleash such an unbelievable, radical, wonderful, beautiful force upon the world, that our lives and our homes and our communities and our nation and our world would be changed, beyond recognition. What’s stopping
us? Lets’ choose today, to start living the way, that the Lord means for us to!
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